New Bombardier jet flies in to boost City airport’s hopes of transatlantic take-off

London City airport’s tight runway beneath a superimposed image of the CS100, an aircraft that can now take its business clientele non-stop to New YorkBombardier

Descending into London City airport is like trying to land on an aircraft carrier, says Peter Koch, a veteran Swiss International Air Lines pilot.

You come in steeply, there’s not a lot of runway, little parking space and it’s surrounded by water.

It is why the airport in the Docklands has been constrained to take smaller regional aircraft whose range is typically to other major western European cities.

It’s also why the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier decided to design a plane for such constricted inner-city airports: a commercial jet that acts like a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320, the most popular aviation workhorses, but one that, unlike those planes, can actually take off and land at the likes of London City.